Title: Coach Lee, Jae Kyun: After recruiting, we will participate in Proleague. We will do our best in the given condition.
Below are the full interview.
Q. It's been two weeks since the waiver news. How have you been?
A. We are contacting teams for the players on waiver. Things are on progress, so it's hard to tell details. On the other hand, we are rebuilding the team along Soulkey and SOS.
We still have players, so we are going to participate in Proleauge. We have not received any information including agenda for next Proleague season from Kespa yet, so we will inform when it comes out.
Q. Fans are worried, and think Woonnjin is, in fact, going to disband.
A. We are not disbanding, player on waiver had been on waiver because there were disagreement on new contracts, so to give them new opportunities.
Q. How's the team house going?
A. We have three players, Soulkey, SoS, and a rookie player. We are planning to recruit 4 or 5 more players who can play on Proleague right now.
Q. Participating in PL with replaced players?
A. Our front office have decided to part in. With new players, we will do our best.
Q. STX also had difficulties, and they disbanded, and other teams are decreasing their sizes too. What do you think is the basic cause of this?
A. STX had to disband because of the mother company. Teams are decreasing the sizes because the popularity of Starcraft 2 in Korea has decreased.
However, to see the whole esport scene, it's developing as LOL is getting popular.
Q. What will be the solution for these problems?
A. It may be a controversial comment, but Blizzard's action is disappointing. Without making the basis firm and stable, they focused on business parts too much, and the popularity have decreased.
Esports started with fans, so if they do not care about this, it won't change in future either.
Q. There are fans who do not know you well. Can you tell how you made team SM in 1999?
A. The team was formed for the strong players at the moment to fight against strong players. HOTforever(KT coach), Garimto(First Starleague royal roader, and 2 times champion.) were in it.
It was 1999 when we left Busan and came Seoul, and started the real actions.
HOTforever was not our member at first, but he we persuaded him to enter after the team kept losing and losing to him. We also met Garimto at the period, and had him join.
Q. Hanbit Stars (former Woongjin Stars) were formed at 2001. How was it made?
A. I visited companies for 2 months to find investors. Mean while, my friend recommended Hanbit Soft, and the team was formed. Most companies wanted a short term sponsorship, so I wanted as long as possible one. The president of Hanbit Soft told us "We will support as long as possible if you guys do well", and we decided to make a contract.
Q. Hanbit, at the moment, had a lot of players along Reach, HOTforever, Garimto, Silent_control, Blaze, and Junwi.
A. Reach joined the team as other players recommended him, saying " He will develop a lot if he joins". At the moment, he was a heavy team play player, not really playing much 1 vs. 1. He has been exiled from the team house playing only team play games. After that he focused on 1 vs 1., and he became a great player.
Blaze and Junwi were recruited after I saw their plays on Battle.net. Silent_control was in team KOR, and traded with Cloud.
It's funny that Cloud and Silent_control became the franchise stars of each team later.
Q. Any remember-able episodes?
A. Ofcourse the winning of Proleague. Also, some conflicts with players. My players were quite freewheeling, and sometimes I had to be forceful.
Later on, players told me that now they understand why I did so.
Q. The golden age of Brood War, 2004-2008, Hanbit had a image of a poor team.
A. When Hanbit Stars were created, it was before the enter of major companies, so we offered the greatest deals to players. We couldn't demand the bigger support because we knew the financial status of the company.
It was hard to convince players because they didn't really know well the status of the company. In this condition, we were really happy to meet Woongjin.
Q. How was the second foundation as Woonjin Stars made?
A. We; I, Kespa, and some reporters, tried to find sponsors, and the outcome was not great. Meanwhile, the Kespa president at the moment asked Woonjin group, and they looked it through optimistically.
Q. Now, when most players have left, even if you part in PL, the result may hardly be good. Isn't there any frustration?
A. At worst, the participation itself has some effect, so we are preparing for it. After recruiting, we will be able to.
There is no frustration about the future result. Everyone will have done their best, and even if the outcome is bad, it's a result of everyone's best.
Q. What will be your next step?
A. We are ready to work at the lowest position of the scene. I ceased SNS or interviews because they could have led some misunderstandings, but now I will restart.
I watched LOL even before Korean launch, so have some attention. It's good that the game has developed so popular in Korea. I am recently playing Hearthstone hard. It also has a lot of potentials to grow as an esport. Also thinking a lot for development of Starcraft 2 scene which is the biggest worry.
Q. Any last words?
A. The team is untidy, so I feel sad for it. I wish it to end in the best possible way. Please love esports, and love Woonjin also!
And respect to the coach for stating his opinion about Blizzard, which certainly contains a lot of truth. We seriously need more figures like him put pressure on blizz, so they finally start doing something far more substantial and impactful.
New blood in PL will be great for the scene as well.
I'm happy to hear they're going to keep going. With half the team presumably be rookies (I may be wrong), I imagine they should be expect even less people (if you could imagine) at their PL matches =\
Kespa needs to adapt. They had so many talented players (hell, just look how stacked WJS alone was), but they didn't realize that unlike BW, you cannot succeed in SC2 by staying only in Korea.
Look at the top 16 in WCS standings right now. There were only 3 Kespa players: Innovation, Soulkey and sOs, and even now Innovation has left the Kespa fold for the foreign scene. Kespa is going to be incredibly underrepresented at Blizzcon, and that's because they overcommitted in Korea and the Kespa players cannibalized each other for WCS points, prize money, and tournament results.
Maybe having a smaller roster for WJS is not a bad idea. But skill is not enough. Inferior players have won more tournaments simply due to having more opportunities. Getting sOs at Dreamhack and IEM is a good start. See Soulkey at more foreign tournaments would be great as well.
The thing with kespa sponsors is that they have no interest in sending players overseas because they are almost strictly Korean sponsors only, so it's a bit hard for them to fork out that cash
thanks for translation! Nice to see him stick it to Blizzard lol. Nothing he said was surprising though. Blizzard cares more about monetary benefits, SCII's popularity is declining and LoL is becoming even bigger. What SCII KR scene will be like in several years? >.>
On October 16 2013 07:21 opterown wrote: The thing with kespa sponsors is that they have no interest in sending players overseas because they are almost strictly Korean sponsors only, so it's a bit hard for them to fork out that cash
Yeah, you are right. These Kespa teams are stuck in a bind, confined by the national borders of SK.
I am recently playing Hearthstone hard. It also has a lot of potentials to grow as an esport.
Isn't that game incredibly luck-based, like MTG? I mean MTG is great and some years ago I really got into extended but apart from perfecting your deck and the probabilities of good card draw there is not that much to do strategically. Sure you can bet on your opponent having certain cards but... meh.
Agreed. Blizzard focusing on the business side of SC2 too much to care about the fans and the game itself. The basis of SC2 is the gameplay, but Blizzard keeps trying to salvage the scene with money, WCS, and everything else that just crumbles because the foundation is broken.
So fuck you slasher who reported even before stx disbanded that wongjin would disband soon. Fucking yellow press wanna be journalist /rant
In all honesty good to hear that they keep going and I hope they do well in proleague. I think having a lot of unknown players may actually give them an advantage given that proleague is all about preparation.
I am recently playing Hearthstone hard. It also has a lot of potentials to grow as an esport.
Isn't that game incredibly luck-based, like MTG? I mean MTG is great and some years ago I really got into extended but apart from perfecting your deck and the probabilities of good card draw there is not that much to do strategically. Sure you can bet on your opponent having certain cards but... meh.
On October 16 2013 07:10 Bagration wrote: Kespa needs to adapt. They had so many talented players (hell, just look how stacked WJS alone was), but they didn't realize that unlike BW, you cannot succeed in SC2 by staying only in Korea.
Look at the top 16 in WCS standings right now. There were only 3 Kespa players: Innovation, Soulkey and sOs, and even now Innovation has left the Kespa fold for the foreign scene. Kespa is going to be incredibly underrepresented at Blizzcon, and that's because they overcommitted in Korea and the Kespa players cannibalized each other for WCS points, prize money, and tournament results.
Maybe having a smaller roster for WJS is not a bad idea. But skill is not enough. Inferior players have won more tournaments simply due to having more opportunities. Getting sOs at Dreamhack and IEM is a good start. See Soulkey at more foreign tournaments would be great as well.
They are adapting by focusing on another game, LoL. Samsung is pretty much the only sponsor with an international footprint.
I really don't understand why they don't go back to BW, it's still more popular. SC2's popularity can only decrease from here until the teams disband altogether (no PL, no point). There's no future in it.
I am recently playing Hearthstone hard. It also has a lot of potentials to grow as an esport.
Isn't that game incredibly luck-based, like MTG? I mean MTG is great and some years ago I really got into extended but apart from perfecting your deck and the probabilities of good card draw there is not that much to do strategically. Sure you can bet on your opponent having certain cards but... meh.
Without having played it, I could only imagine (supposing you are right about it) that it would be better if played like poker, where the players are just aiming to win the most, so it's more a matter of strategically deciding how much to be when.
Great interview, thanks Always like to hear from the top dogs of korean teams, especially KESPA run ones as they seem more disciplined than others xD GL WOONGJIN!
They could look into working together with other teams. Nazgul for example recently said that HerO's housing situation isn't fully decided yet and depending on where he stays he could be participating in Proleague. Stuff like that wouldn't hurt their budget and still help them participate - especially if it's someone like HerO who's got tons of fans paying attention
On October 16 2013 21:40 DarkLordOlli wrote: They could look into working together with other teams. Nazgul for example recently said that HerO's housing situation isn't fully decided yet and depending on where he stays he could be participating in Proleague. Stuff like that wouldn't hurt their budget and still help them participate - especially if it's someone like HerO who's got tons of fans paying attention
I hope they have been able to keep their sick team house.
"Esports started with fans, so if they do not care about this, it won't change in future either." basically echos what destiny said. more players = more fans = more sponsors = more tournaments etc
On October 16 2013 23:09 ETisME wrote: "Esports started with fans, so if they do not care about this, it won't change in future either." basically echos what destiny said. more players = more fans = more sponsors = more tournaments etc
well there will never be more players since they neglect the fact that all e-sports are f2p and nobody will pay 50$ to play starcraft when WoT LoL and Dota2 are f2p .
On October 16 2013 23:09 ETisME wrote: "Esports started with fans, so if they do not care about this, it won't change in future either." basically echos what destiny said. more players = more fans = more sponsors = more tournaments etc
well there will never be more players since they neglect the fact that all e-sports are f2p and nobody will pay 50$ to play starcraft when WoT LoL and Dota2 are f2p .
Easier said than done. Unlike those other games, sc2 was designed to be pay to play from the start, and considering what Blizzard is like, it'll be a long, long time before they are willing to make the fundamental changes and additions to make sc2 as f2p as its competition. The best we could hope for is if they make additions to their Starter Edition or if they design their next RTS as a f2p with lessons learned from sc2.
Also, I wish the coach specified more on Blizzard's neglect for the scene. What he said is, to me, very broad and vague regarding the matter. I want to hear if he has any specific suggestions and criticisms.
EPT![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Lee_Jae-gyun_from_acrofan.jpg/225px-Lee_Jae-gyun_from_acrofan.jpg)
!
